


left behind

by allieteration



Category: Choices: Stories You Play, PlayChoices, choices: veil of secrets
Genre: Choices, Choices: Stories You Play - Freeform, F/F, Gay Panic, LGBT+, LGBTQ Character, Pixelberry - Freeform, Playchoices - Freeform, Screenplay/Script Format, Veil of Secrets, Vos - Freeform, lgbtq+, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 11:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15484767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allieteration/pseuds/allieteration
Summary: a screenplay loosely inspired by naughty dog’s the last of us dlc left behind set in the scenic o'malley cottage on big bear lake where two girls cling to one another like water to sunkissed skin, and come to realize that it is not what we leave behind that matters, but what lies within us now.





	left behind

**Author's Note:**

> left behind revolutionized from concept to brainstorm to words on paper as the chapters from playchoices’ visual novel veil of secrets were released each week. katherine o’malley, mc’s distant friend of yesteryear from hartfeld university we investigate the disappearance of, is a fascinating character to me. truthfully, she reminds me of rachel amber from the life is strange series. i aspired to fashion a universe where my mc, leonie, and kate were gifted with the opportunity to connect with one another on a different level not yet explored by pixelberry while conforming to the theme of summertime and this july heat. the influence of ellie williams and riley and their wholesome, yet complex relationship from the last of us dlc left behind was significant to me while writing. i hope their phenomenal characterizations bleed through just enough for you to understand their impact on me.

FADE IN:

EXT. THE O’MALLEY COTTAGE

 

The ultramarine lake whittled from the woodland encompassing the picturesque O’MALLEY cottage glimmers with evenfall sunlight.  The periwinkle and fairy tale pink watercolor sky cast silhouettes of swallows frolicking inside of their cloud dwellings unto a sunbathing KATE, her skin dampened with glistening sweat droplets.  Her woven sunhat shelters half of her sweet-tempered face, her electrifying eye capturing the incandescence of the hushed beach.

 

KATE

Pictures last longer, Leonie.

 

LEONIE straightens from her reclined position upon her polka-dotted beach towel, eyes widening in bashfulness.

 

LEONIE

I-I

 

KATE’S laugh nourishes the evergreen trees and wildflowers that blossom in her direction, frogs springing unto their lilypads, dragonflies gliding along the watering hole’s surface.

 

KATE

_ Relax _ , I’m fucking with you.

 

LEONIE’S shoulders slacken with a cumbersome exhale, her bespeckled cheeks flushing with a red-wine hue, intoxicating KATE.

 

LEONIE

_ Why  _ do you do this to me?

 

KATE

Because it’s entertaining to watch you squirm.

 

LEONIE lightheartedly sticks her tongue out, and KATE rejoinders with “the bird”.

 

KATE

Feel like dipping your toes in?  Flynn says the water’s warm.

 

LEONIE shrugs, arising to her bare feet.  KATE follows suit, an impish smirk flittering unto her lemon chapstick lips.  The twosome scampers with fingers plaited like a schoolgirl’s French braid to the shoreline, and onto the timber pier.

 

LEONIE

I missed this.

 

LEONIE’S eyes have softened as her gaze is interlocked like a tarnished padlock with the opulent lakehouses that evanesce into the horizon.

 

KATE

Me too.  I missed  _ you _ .

 

LEONIE’S eyelashes dance in a resplendent melodic number, swaying on her heels like the vessels in the inland sea.  Before she has an opportunity to counter, KATE has thrusted her off of the ramshackle dock. LEONIE tumbles over, her collision with the cerulean water resounding across the neighborhood, the splash showering KATE.  Soon, she light-footedly swandives in after LEONIE, their lungs searing underwater before they, in chorus, starburst through the surface.

 

LEONIE

_ I can’t believe you! _

 

KATE

You  _ better  _ believe it!  That was golden!

 

LEONIE

At least I’m not fully-clothed like last time…

 

KATE

No, this was more priceless than last time!

 

LEONIE

Okay,  _ okay _ _ — _ have your laughs now, but remember:  _ Karma’s a bitch _ .

 

The partners-in-crime tread, a comfortable and invigorating coolness swathing them like a newborn in a grandmother’s quilt.  LEONIE streamrolls her tresses with her palms, beads of water cascading down her face and back into their motherland. KATE can’t stop herself from furtively glancing at her.

 

KATE

Race you out to the platform?

 

LEONIE

Oh, it is  _ on _ !

 

With a squeal in fortissimo like a trumpeting symphony, the pair dashes toward the buoyant platform, their lean legs fervidly kicking.  LEONIE is the first to drum on the waterlogged stepladder and conquer up and onto the platform. She drives her fists upward in triumph with a thunderous roar and subsequent guffaw at her own frivolousness.

 

KATE

You cheated!

 

LEONIE

Accept your defeat, O’Malley.  You must’ve forgotten that I swam competitively all throughout junior high.

 

KATE

No fair!

 

KATE is standing in front of LEONIE on the platform now, twittering with jubilation, her chest heaving.  LEONIE furrows her brow, suddenly bewildered.

 

LEONIE

You seem so happy.

 

KATE squares her shoulders defensively, hands gripping her hips.

 

KATE

Is that a bad thing?

 

LEONIE

No…no, of course it’s not a bad thing.  I’m happy that you’re happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.

 

KATE surveys LEONIE dubiously, unhanding her hips, and soon relenting, collapsing onto her back like a plummeting comet.  She is nothing but luster and enchantment beneath the setting sun, her strawberry locks beach-wavy and vibrant. LEONIE mimics her, lying down alongside her, her viridescent irises ensnaring the illumination of the sunshine with a twinkle.

 

KATE

Will you promise me something?

 

LEONIE

Anything, Kate.

 

KATE

Promise to never forget me.

 

LEONIE rolls her head to the side to study KATE like a university textbook—only she is exponentially more captivating.

 

LEONIE

What?

 

KATE

I mean it, Leonie.  Someday, i’m going to die.  You will, too. except I have a feeling i will before you.  And when I do, I don’t want my memory to succumb to oblivion.  I want to stay alive in the people and places that I’ve touched.  Is anything I’m saying making sense?

 

LEONIE

It is.

 

KATE

I think that’s why I’m reckless…or “free-spirited”…or whatever people want to label me as.  I’m  _ so scared _ of being left behind.

 

LEONIE

Hey, look at me.

 

LEONIE bolsters herself onto her elbows.  KATE obliges to her tenderhearted request, demure for perhaps the leading occasion.

 

LEONIE

Nobody is leaving anybody behind, Kate.  We stick together. We always have.

 

KATE

Maybe.  You’re flourishing in this world, though.  And I’m proud of you for that. But it’s all without me.

 

LEONIE

Kate—

 

KATE

I  _ know _ that I’m being selfish.  I guess I was hoping that wherever you go…you would take me with you.

 

A palpable quietude settles over them, with solely the waves manifested from speedboats to fill the emptiness.

 

LEONIE

I have a journalism conference in Vancouver next week.  You should come with me. I’ll have an added few hours, and I want to sightsee with you.

 

KATE

That’s not what I meant.

 

LEONIE

Then what is it you want from me?  I’m trying here, Kate.

 

KATE

_ I want you.  To be with you. _

 

It becomes unmistakable between them that something has happened that hadn’t before this June day.  A truthfulness they weren’t primed for, but that they  _ needed _ a familiarity with.

 

LEONIE

Kate…

 

KATE

You don’t have to say anything.  I should’ve told you a long time ago, when we were young and in college and inseparable.  Do you remember how inseparable we were?

 

KATE

I’ve loved you, too.  I  _ love  _ you.

 

LEONIE’S plump lips unfurl into a simper like mandarin marmalade unto pastry.  She tilts toward KATE, latching onto her shoulder, the two of a kind toppling over into an ardent and long-awaited kiss.

 

LEONIE

I’m feeling like this calls for celebration.  S’mores and cheap beer?

 

KATE

You read my mind.

 

Shoulder to shoulder, they cannonball below toward the shoreline into a whirl of an underwater buss, the abyss swallowing them up like a merciless beast of the sea.  What was left behind was only a blistering summertime thought:  _'Don't be like the rest of them.'_

 

** END **


End file.
